


You Look Like...

by Jazz_in_the_Tardis



Series: Doctor Who Ficlets [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5094071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jazz_in_the_Tardis/pseuds/Jazz_in_the_Tardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose makes a grave mistake, and the Doctor pays for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Look Like...

“Grah!” Rose heard the Doctor exclaim from the bathroom. 

Curious, she peeked in the open door. “Everything alright?” 

The Doctor was looking at himself in the mirror, his fingers running through his hair. “Look at this!” He held his fringe between two of his fingers and pulled it down in front of his eyes. “Getting far too long,” he muttered.

“Well, just get a trim then.”

The Doctor snapped his head to look at her, his face filled with mild panic. “I’ve never gotten a trim before.”

“What, never?”

“My hair’s always just sort of… changed.”

“Right… okay, I think my mum knows a place –“ The Doctor scrunched his nose. “Fine! I’m sure I can figure out something…”

“Can’t you just do it?”

Rose blinked. She waited for a moment but the Doctor was gazing at her hopefully. He was serious. “What? No!”

“Why not?” he whined.

“Because I’ve never done it before!”

“So? How hard can it be? You just cut the long bits off.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“Well how would you know?” He was grinning now, and supported himself with one arm against the doorframe. He reach up to lightly pinch her chin. “Come on.”

Rose raised her eyebrow.

“Yeah?”

Rose rolled her eyes.

The Doctor bent down and kissed her on the cheek. He knew he’d gotten his way.

Rose pulled a chair into the kitchen and the Doctor sat down. She draped a towel around his neck and shoulders. The Doctor seemed excited, perhaps because he was challenging Rose to do something new. Rose was so nervous, her hands were shaking as she opened the kit she borrowed from Pete. There was a small pair of clippers inside, along with an electric razor. Jackie had decided this was too good of a thing to miss and was resting against the counter, her arms folded and a smirk on her face. Rose took a deep breath. 

“Okay,” she said, psyching herself up. “This shouldn’t be too hard, just clip off the long bits.” 

She tried to keep her hands steady as she ran a comb through the Doctor’s dampened hair and held it there, using the comb as a guide for how much to cut. The first snip was the hardest. It was silly, but Rose felt like she was damaging the Doctor by lopping off his hair, even though he was right: he definitely needed it. 

She slowly got into the groove of combing and trimming, trying to ignore for now that the cuts weren’t even and looked choppy. Just get the length off, she thought, and then worry about the final result.

It was actually going better than Rose thought it would. All she had left to do was clean up around the ears and neck. The razor climbed out of its case. It growled intimidatingly and virbrated in her hand, growing hot with power. But Rose’s confidence had been built up by the more or less successful trim, and she felt sure that she could conquer it. She started at the back of his neck and carefully buzzed off the small hairs she hadn’t gotten at the nape. It looked neat and tidy now, and Rose smirked at it. Next was around the ears. Rose glided the blade along his hairline smoothly. One ear down. She moved to his other and glided the blade and –

Her hand slipped.

Rose gasped loudly and the Doctor and Jackie jumped in unison. Pete heard it from the living room and darted into the room.

“What? What is it?” the Doctor asked, alarmed. He was afraid to swivel his head around so he sort of wriggled in place.

“No, no, no.” Rose whispered in horror.

Jackie took a closer look. She started cackling.

“Rose?!” The Doctor exclaimed nervously.

Rose swallowed. “I… um. I sort of… shaved the side of your head.”

“What?!” the Doctor squeaked. He bounced up, stray bits of hair trailing after him as he ran to the bathroom to use the mirror. “What!!?” he bellowed, much louder. Rose hid her face in her hands.

The Doctor ran back into the kitchen, panting. Rose peeked through her fingers and the Doctor was staring at her, his eyes bulging in shock. “What are we going to do?” he pleaded. His voice was high pitched and Rose flushed with embarrassment.

“Well, you’ll have to shave the whole thing now,” Jackie quipped. “No other choice, is there?”

The Doctor’s eyes darted back and forth between Jackie and Rose. He lifted his hands to his head and twirled around in exasperation. “Oh, well, that’s just great! That’s fantastic. Brilliantly done, Rose.”

Rose could feel her blood boiling up to her head. “Excuse me?!” she barked. “I told you I didn’t know what I was doing. I told you to go to a professional. But did you listen? No! I did the best I could, sorry it wasn’t good enough for you!!” And with that, she stamped her foot and marched as quickly as she could into her bedroom and flopped onto her bed, her eyes stinging with hot tears.

Silence fell in the kitchen, until after a minute Rose could hear Pete and the Doctor muttering softly, followed by the shuffling of feet and the dull buzzing of the electric razor being turned on.

Several minutes passed and the whirring of the razor burned in Rose’s ears. She was so ashamed and angry at herself for screwing up, and furious at the Doctor for lashing out at her.

Pete had at last turned the razor off and there was a loud silence. Then footsteps and a soft tap on Rose’s door frame. Rose didn’t dare turn to look.

“Rose?” said the Doctor.

Rose found a spot on the wall to stare at.

“Rose, I’m sorry I snapped at you.” The Doctor stepped into the room. “Really, it’s okay. It looks fine.”

“You haven’t even looked at it yet, have you?”

A moment’s pause, then the Doctor sighed. “Well… no, I haven’t.”

Rose turned around to face him then. The Doctor’s head was completely shaved, less than an inch of brown hair left. Not even enough for the Doctor to grab in frustration like he used to. Rose would probably have laughed at him good naturedly if she hadn’t been the cause of such a drastic change. 

Suddenly Rose was reminded of something. The Doctor’s new haircut brought a wave of memories from when she first met him, when he was a different man, literally and figuratively. “You look like…” Rose said quietly, but trailed off.

The Doctor reached up and touched his head, then realized himself. He looked at Rose, a spark of fear in his eyes. “Do you miss him?” he asked eventually.

“You are him,” Rose whispered, the answer automatic.

The Doctor sat on the bed and Rose sat up. “I am him,” the Doctor replied, “but I’m not. We’re as different as New York and New New York.”

“New New Doctor,” Rose said. They both smiled. She glanced at his hair again. “God, I’m so sorry.”

The Doctor pulled her in for a hug. “Nah, s’alright! New new haircut! I needed a change, change is healthy! Besides… it’ll grow back.”

“In the meantime,” Rose said, “how do you feel about hats?”


End file.
